Let's Shine Some Light on Kosher Food Industry

Published: April 18, 1990

To the Editor:

We are appalled by the unconscionable increases in kosher food prices in the New York City area that preceded the Passover holiday (news article, April 3). You merely highlighted a long-festering disgrace that brings hardships to many, especially to the Jewish poor, who can barely make ends meet. There is no reason kosher chickens should cost $2.29 a pound when nonkosher chickens sell for less than $1 a pound.

Nor is there any justification for kosher specialty foods to double or triple in price. The kosher supervision is virtually the same in a kosher plant all year round, and the ingredients used are not radically different. This is simple flagrant price gouging and is a violation of both Jewish law and secular law.

In Israel, the supermarkets invariably announce a price cut before the high holidays and Passover to ease the plight of the poor. In the United States it is precisely the reverse.

A number of years ago, we headed a special subcommittee for the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies that was formed to study allegations of price fixing and price gouging of kosher products, especially at holiday time. Several food distributors and wholesale meat suppliers confirmed that there should be no more than a few cents difference in cost between most kosher and non-kosher products and meats. The largest kosher poultry company refused to attend our hearings. When we invited other major food and poultry companies, we met a stone wall.

Perhaps it is time the attorneys general of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as the United States Attorney General, investigated possible collusive price fixing and overcharging. The consumers can only benefit from such a long-overdue probe.

MYRON M. FENSTER

GILBERT S. ROSENTHAL

New York, April 5, 1990

The writers are, respectively, president and executive vice president of the Jewish Board of Rabbis.